Oooh, I really like that second one. The words in the water effect is cool.
I wish I had as much determination as you. Well...I do, really...it's just a matter of working on something for more than a few days/weeks...I had a project that was almost two years old, but I stopped working on it, even though it was almost done. I'll probably go back to it eventually.
Of course, now I'm sort of blocked. Every time I try to start something new, I always think the beginning of it/what I've written sucks, so I stop working on it. x.x
UPDATE: I finished another scene in Tears... hooray! I'm going to try and hold myself to writing two scenes a week, and hopefully I will work up to one scene a day before the summer. And then, in the summer, I plan on using the Flames pace I used last summer and write two scenes a day. *deep breath* Please be praying for me - I'm going to need it. This weekend I will probably try to rewrite chapter 6 of Flames (I want to get to chapter 7 where I finally am able to get into Strick's head and reveal some stuff - his scenes flow so much more naturally than the Creiha ones. They are almost effortless to write and rewrite.)
NO SPOILERS! hooray! Lately, I have been looking back on how Flames began and how in the world I came up with the idea, and it's been intriguing me ever since and left me wondering how other writers get their ideas. So, here is the story:
*beginning of long-winded rant*
Before I started Flames, I was co-authoring a story with a friend of mine. We had been working on it for 2 years, and it was just a hobby, nothing serious. Nevertheless, I was very attached to my major character - Corrode. Well, both of us were caught up in school and eventually, it just died. We never officially called it off, by my friend stopped writing and the story is still sitting on my computer unfinished. I was very sad because, as I mentioned, I had grown very attached to my characters.
I had never written anything substantial on my own before besides poems, a few short stories and a few long-winded stories which I never finished. Not much experience to say the least. I searched for anything to write, any long-winded story to continue in my computer, and I realized the common factor of all my old stories was an extremely bitter and dark male protagonist in the cast. This one type of character existed in every single story I had ever written and they showed striking parallels toward one another.
That was frustrating, and I didn't want that anymore. I wanted something different! I stopped writing for a long time and then went to see the musical Wicked where I realized that a character can have a dramatic change and still be powerful without being extremely dark. I saw this in Fiyero. I wanted a character like that, but I wanted something unique.
A few more months passed and then I was in Biology class (which was horribly easy and boring) with my writing journal out. Suddenly, it came. I still have the first thing I ever wrote of Flames, where Creiha (who was Crea at the time) meets this strange person. That character who was not dark and depressing but was still intriguing and complex just came. It would be wrong of me to say I created Strick because that's not true; he and Creiha just came to me, and then I launched into a story with no sense of direction whatsoever.
Eventually, it started developing (probably when I was 30 pages in), and Flames was started. It was strange, because I remember laboring over characters for a long time in older stories, but in Flames, most of them just appeared (with the exception of a few like Gietan). And now, it is kind of creepy and absurd to think that Strick was loosely based on Fiyero - my goodness, they are nothing alike, but Strick is not one of the dark, bitter characters I used to have in abundance, and that is why I can't stop writing.
As the say, a story will always find a storyteller
*end of long-winded rant*
So, how have some of you all gotten your ideas?
EDIT: Chapter 6: Cold is now posted.
Last edited by Writersdomain on Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hee hee, co-writes can be very fun actually. I don't know where I would be without them. I think I've done three so far... none of them finished, of course. Ah well.
I keep wanting to write some later sections of Tears, and it's driving me crazy. I don't want to start writing the later scenes or I will get caught up and have to fill in. Grar.
Anyways, I finished rewriting chapter 6 of Flames, and am now going on chapter 7... which is now commonly known as the 'nightmare chapter.' Rereading it, I realized how much more fun it can be when you get out of Creiha's POV. The first 3 scenes of chapter 7 are all from Strick's POV and then I think there's a Lusien section. Lots of fun, to say the least.
Hehe, yes, character impressions. (I love you, Imp!!!)
Sentence structure, spelling, grammar, phrasing, wordiness - all these I can fix with a few suggestions and a couple readthroughs. Characters, on the other hand, are where I get paranoid. I'm always afraid I portray them wrongly or make them inconsistent. They are the one thing I struggle to fix.
Anyways, I thank you in advance for any characters impressions/criticisms you might have for me.
Recurring Dialogue
I LOVE RECURRING DIALOGUE! It is a tool I use endlessly in both Flames and Tears. A person says something, then says it 100 pages later and it has an entirely new meaning.
For instance...
"A life of running is no life at all." The first time, Strick says it. Then, he says it midway through the book, and Creiha actually gets it. Then, Creiha says it. Then we have "A life of running was no life at all, but a life of running would have to be his life" part. And then it shows up again.
Then there's: "If you were wise, you would keep your distance from me." Lusien says this at least three times and each time she gets a slightly different response, signifying the character changes.
Due to popular demand... a name/place pronunciation guide for Flames of Lecraesa (I don't know the standard way to write pronunciations, but think you'll understand...)
FIRST NAMES
Creiha (KRAY-uh)
Criscialda (Kree-see-ALL-duh)
Strick (exactly how it sounds: Strick)
Markus (MAR-cuss)
Gietan (GEE [as in glee] -et-on)
Lusien (LOO-zee-in)
Sophie (SO-fee)
Traez (TRAY-ez)
Embel (Em-BELL)
Alieskuh (Uh-LEEZ-kuh)
Arillo (Uh-REE-oh)
Isterick (ISS-ter-ick)
Kescren (KESS-ren)
Nalien (NAL-ee-en)
Liehne (Lee-EH-nuh)
Hedjlon (HEDGE-lawn)
Kliana (KLEE-on-uh)
Larckes (LAR-kez)
Ah, that clears up some questions I had - pronunciation always something I think about. ^_^
I could only suggest you you capitalise or italicise the stressed syllable in each name; for example (no connection to your characters), the name Leonora -- Lay - ah - NOR - ah. ^_^
In Criscialda's case, I assume the stress falls on the second to last syllable (Kree - see - AL - da). Is it? o0'
IMP
ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem
"There is adventure in simply being among those we love, and among the things we love -- and beauty, too."
The pronunciations are so normal to me . Then of course, I suppose that is the case with every writer.
Anyways, some news...
The Good News: Chapter 7 of Flames is coming along nicely and I wrote a little more of Tears as well as done some very fun planning.
The Bad News: As this is the internet and editing the beginning of Flames is distracting me from Tears, I am going to stop posting Flames chapters on YWS around chapter 10 or 11. I at least want to finish off those, because that's about the time things get decent. However, I do want to post the beginning of Tears on here because I feel it is dragging, so I will probably end up posting the last few chapters of Flames so people have an idea what happened. I will also give a brief synopsis somewhere.
Last edited by Writersdomain on Sun May 27, 2007 9:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
. Then of course, I suppose that is the case with every writer.
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